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Karzai Meets With Top Officials in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan met with Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani here on Thursday in a show of public friendship, even as the two sides tried to work through underlying tensions over how to deal with the Taliban militants who use the countries’ lawless border region as a sanctuary.

Both leaders stressed that stability for their countries hinged on mutual cooperation, and Mr. Karzai tried to assuage widespread public unease in Pakistan about the growing influence in Afghanistan of India, Pakistan’s regional rival. “Afghanistan does not want proxy war between India and Pakistan,” Mr. Karzai said at a joint news conference with the prime minister, adding that he appreciated Indian efforts in Afghan reconstruction.

Earlier Thursday, Mr. Karzai met with the powerful Pakistani Army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, and on Wednesday, the day of his arrival, Mr. Karzai held talks with President Asif Ali Zardari.

Pakistani officials said that the two presidents had a warmer relationship than the frosty one that existed between Mr. Karzai and Pakistan’s former president, Pervez Musharraf. “Relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan have improved greatly,” said Farahnaz Ispahani, a media adviser to Mr. Zardari.

But some analysts noted that beyond the diplomatic niceties, important differences remained. Mr. Karzai’s main mission, they said, was to seek Pakistani help in promoting conciliatory gestures and peace efforts toward the Taliban.

In recent weeks, there has been a flurry of arrests of militant leaders in Pakistan, most importantly that of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the No. 2 Taliban figure, who was detained last month in Karachi. However, Pakistani officials have rejected Afghan demands to hand him over.

Ahmed Rashid, a Pakistani journalist and expert on the Taliban who met with Mr. Karzai on Thursday morning, said the arrests of Taliban leaders in Pakistan were a source of “a very serious underlying tension” between the countries.

Mr. Rashid told Dawn News, a private television news channel, “Karzai has asked for the extradition of Mullah Baradar and these Taliban who have been caught by the ISI in recent weeks.” He was referring to the Inter-Services Intelligence directorate, the Pakistani spy agency.

Mr. Rashid said there was a suggestion from the Afghan side that the Pakistani arrests of Taliban leaders were not helping Kabul.

“The word ‘undermining’ Kabul’s own initiative was used, and I think these tensions would have been a key in the talks with Prime Minister Gilani,” as well as the Afghan and Pakistani intelligence chiefs, he said.

“Some of the more pragmatic Taliban have been arrested by the ISI,” Mr. Rashid said, “and this has caused consternation in Kabul because these were the same people who were holding secret talks with the Kabul administration, and the other suggestion is that a number of hard-liners will replace Mullah Baradar and those arrested.”

Mr. Rashid said that Afghans were eager for reconciliation with the Taliban. The Americans are not fully on board but the British are pushing Mr. Karzai for it, he said.

“India, of course, I think has got quite a fit that Pakistan is muscling in by making these arrests,” he said. “There is an enormous amount of complexity and tension between all the major players right now in Afghanistan.”